A broad assortment of insulation and packaging materials are presently used to transport payloads which are prone to crushing, tearing or other breakage. Included among these are a multitude of containers fashioned from exotic composite materials and from such mundane materials as cardboard for safely transporting payloads which are unstable of fragile.
Additionally, the prior art discloses various padding or filler materials that are useful as impact insulation within a box, envelope or other shipping container. For instance, materials such as corrugated cardboard, used alone or in conjunction with plastic "bubble wrap," foam beads, foam "peanuts" or the like, generally represent state-of-the-art in protecting fragile objects during shipping. In the absence of such packing materials, however, conventional unpadded shipping containers are either too flimsy to reliably protect highly fragile contents if delivered through the mail or too rigid to be processed by automated postal service machinery. In the latter case, the containers must be hand-processed by the postal carrier, thereby delaying their delivery.
Despite the general efficacy of most packaging materials as protectants, the result has often been an ungainly package which is typically substantially larger and, frequently, many times greater in size than the goods contained therewithin. In fact, in order to insure the requisite degree of protection, a relatively small and fragile object normally must be surrounded by considerable amounts of packing materials. Consequently, similar to packages that are too rigid for automated processing, the United States Postal Service or other carrier commonly must process such bulky packages by hand.
This problem is especially frustrating with respect to relatively flat, fragile goods which otherwise fit readily within the spacial confines of conventional envelopes or mailers suitable for automated postal processing, yet, because of their delicate nature, cannot endure the rigors of automated postal facility processing machinery or the stresses associated with manual handling. Under these circumstances, polymeric materials would seem an attractive means by which to encase such goods for transport. However, notwithstanding their inherent elastic memory qualities, most packages formed from polymeric materials are subject to cracking or deformation when subjected to conventional processing and handling techniques. Consequently, there is no presently available package design that incorporates light weight, high strength and small size with resistance to repeated bending and handling procedures.
An advantage exists, therefore, for a lightweight, protective shipping package that is flexible enough to pass through the automated equipment of the United States Postal Service (or other carriers), yet is sufficiently rigid to withstand the jostling and other rough handling typically encountered in the mails.